Gold Cup

CONCACAF Gold Cup

In the nineteen overall championships, only seven nations have won the title. Mexico is the most successful CONCACAF team, having won the tournament seven times. The current Champion, the United States, follows with four titles, while Costa Rica holds three. The other former champions are Canada with two titles, and Honduras, Haiti, Guatemala with one title each.

When the Gold Cup does not fall the same year as an edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, the winner, or highest place team that is a member of both CONCACAF and FIFA, qualifies for the next staging of that tournament.

Historical overview

Prior to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) being formed in 1961, football in the district was divided into smaller, regional divisions. The two main bodies consisted of the Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Fútbol (CCCF) founded in 1938 (consisting of Central America and most of the Caribbean) and the North American Football Confederation (NAFC) founded in 1946 (consisting of United States, Mexico, Canada, and Cuba). Each confederation held their own competitions, the CCCF Championship and the NAFC Championship. The CCCF held 10 championships from 1941-1961, Costa Rica winning seven (1941, ’46, ’48, ’53, ’55, ’60, ’61), and one each by El Salvador (1943), Panama (1951) and Haiti (1957). The NAFC held two championships, in 1947 and 1949, won each time by Mexico.

CONCACAF was founded in its current form in 1961 after the merging of NAFC and CCCF and thus resulted in a single competition being held for the continent, however the first official national team competition was not held until more than two years had passed, with El Salvador being selected as the first hosting country (1963). The CONCACAF Campeonato de Naciones, as it was called, was then held every two years from 1963-1971. The second edition (1965) held in Guatemala, saw Mexico defeat the host in the final of a six-team tournament. The 1967 competition was held in Honduras and saw a third different champion crowned, Guatemala. Costa Rica won their second title as hosts in 1969, knocking off Guatemala, while two years later, Mexico won their second championship as the tournament moved to the Caribbean for the first time, held in Trinidad & Tobago. In 1973, the tournament kept the same format of six teams in one site playing a single round-robin, but now there were bigger stakes attaches: the Confederation’s berth in the FIFA World Cup finals. In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the host country pulled off a shocking upset by winning the tournament and claiming a spot in West Germany 1974.

With the Campeonato de Naciones doubling as the final World Cup qualifying tournament, the next two editions were held in Ciudad de México and Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1977 and 1981, respectively, the host country came away as champion and grabbed the spots on offers each time. In 1985 and 1989, the winner of the World Cup qualifying tournament was again crowned Confederation champion. Canada and Costa Rica were named champions in ’85 and ’89, respectively, but without ever lifting a trophy.

In 1990, CONCACAF again created a tournament as its showpiece event to crown the regional champion. The event was named the CONCACAF Gold Cup, with the USA hosting the first competition in 1991. The host country was the inaugural champion of the eight-team tournament. Mexico dominated the remainder of the decade, winning three consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup titles in 1993, 1996 and 1998. In the 1996 edition, the Gold Cup field included its first guest team, inviting the defending FIFA World Cup Champions Brazil.

Starting with the 2000 Gold Cup, the tournament field was increased to twelve teams. Canada made history winning their first major international honour in more than 100 years of football.